Those exhaust tips don’t serve a purpose, and oh, hello Tesla.

If you are a fan of the Mission E concept, there is a good chance you are going to appreciate the production model as well. Sure, it won’t have the suicide doors, nor will it get cameras instead of mirrors, but it seems the overall shape and styling is going to be carried over. Spotted for the first time carrying the production body, the all-electric sedan will have an almost coupe-like roofline lending it a sleek side profile.

Porsche Mission E

Both prototypes had extra layers of camouflage on the LED headlights and taillights to hide their designs, but even so we can get an idea about the shape of the clusters. The fake stickers applied at the front have been imprinted with the headlight design from the Panamera, but you can actually see the real ones underneath and these look just about as futuristic as the ones the concept had.

At the back, the taillights are a more conventional setup with clusters on each side rather than the full-width LED strip of the showcar from 2015. To try and trick us into believing it’s a prototype powered by a combustion engine, Porsche slapped on a pair of exhaust finishers, but these were not connected to any real exhaust pipes and were there just for décor.

Porsche Mission E

Overall, it seems Porsche will indeed live up to the promise made last year about the road-going model retaining most of the concept’s appearance by saying the exterior “will be very similar.” Company CEO, Oliver Blume, specified that while carrying over the suicide doors would be a “hard problem,” the engineers are working on something “very close.” This test vehicle seems to have a conventional setup, unless the additional disguise on the C-pillars is hiding a secret.

Porsche Mission E

Not only will it have just about the same styling, but it will also feature similar technical specifications as the concept before it. That means its battery pack will have enough juice for up to 311 miles (500 kilometers) in the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), likely about 250 miles/400 km real-world/EPA estimated, and will feature the Porsche Turbo Charging system able to recharge the battery to an 80-percent in 15 minutes or so by using an 800-volt fast charger.

Porsche Mission E

Codenamed “J1,” the road-ready Mission E is slated to have roughly the same 600+ horsepower (440 kilowatts) coming from a pair of electric motors in the same vein as the concept, which needed 3.5 seconds to complete the 0-62 mph (0-100 kph) task. There will be more than just one version of the Mission E as several power outputs are being planned, along with over-the-air updates like Tesla is providing for its EVs. Some of these OTA updates could come bundled with an increase in power, according to Oliver Blume.

The cheapest Mission E money will buy is going to cost approximately $85,000 (like a base Panamera) once the zero-emissions sedan will go on sale late 2019. Further down the line, it could be joined by other body style if the sedan will prove to be a success.

Porsche Mission E

To make it all happen, Porsche is spending a whopping €1 billion ($1.17M) and is creating more than 1,000 jobs.

@Scott B said: “Supercharger access? Without it, you’d be foolish to purchase a Mission E over a Model S.”
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True…

But there will be a handful of diehard Porsche fans wanting to buy this car because it’s a Porsche and willing to overlook the supercharger access topic if they don’t intend to make long-range trips with the Mission E. I’m thinking Porsche at this time is not concerned about targeting the Mission E to a wider audience than that.

Porsche will eventually address the supercharger access topic (perhaps in 3-5 years) when the Porsche BOD is forced to start executing top level Porsche executives over continued Porsche market share loss to Tesla. Until then Porsche executives will continue to convince themselves that the supercharger access topic will self resolve.

There are plenty of EV virtues Tesla leaves on the table, that Mission E may take advantage of (LiPo?,cooling,regen,800v). It won’t be all bad, if Porsche limits sales by making it more of a performance car, than one with better road-EV manners (high range+weight). Dropping the suicide doors, the evident rear difusser, and a compariatively lower ride height (no skateboard?) tease more about how this Porsche could change minds in places Teslas rarely go.

For all the terrible ethics problems VW is having, it is still a company wedded to the idea cars should be fun.

There are announced plans for certain companies installing public EV chargers “coming soon” that are capable of charging at 350 or even 400 kW (see link below), but so far as I know, the only public EV chargers capable of charging as fast as a Tesla Supercharger are one or two — literally just 1 or 2 — prototype/demo 350 kW charging stations.

Meanwhile, Tesla has installed and maintains thousands of its Superchargers.

You should go ahead and actually make your point, instead of just hinting at it: That Tesla started selling the Model S months before it opened the first Supercharger stations to the public (source 1 below).

And that, EV fans, is all the evidence anyone should need that the Mission E can (and likely will) find a lot of buyers even without access to Tesla’s Supercharger network. One survey showed that 55% of EV drivers say they have never used a DC fast charging station (source 2 below).

Sure, Tesla’s Supercharger network gives it a strong edge over the competition. But Tesla isn’t the only game in town when it comes to driving a PEV, and its competition is finally showing signs of growth.

Turbo charging? Wow. That word has ceased to mean anything other than marketing superlatives. For a moment, I thought there might be a turbine and compressed fuel-air, then I realized “how would that help recharge a battery?” This beckons back to yesteryears when computers had Turbo buttons, I guess.

Just as I expected; an electric Panamera, not a bad thing at all but the concept looked way better. Wouldn’t be surprised if they are making a deal with Tesla to use the supercharger network.
In any case it’s still two years away.

Oh you’re so clever and funny. I’m sure you hear that all of the time though. You superimposed the smaller Model 3 of Tesla with the larger Porsche, because they’re both electric cars. I get it. Oh so very clever.

I doubt that the Toshiba cell will be suitable for a BEV. Surely, it charges fast, and can be used for an insane power density. But the energy density is poor, so it will take up a lot of space and add weight. In terms of cost, it is probably more expensive than standard Li-ion (more cells requred for same kWh), and the new model apparently contains Niobium, which is not cheap either.

Look carefully…it’s not a mission E at all…its a mule…a Panamera. Roofline, headlight, taillight, wheel arche, hoodline, everything is Panamera. So will the mission E be an electrified Panamera or its just a mule since they have not finalized the real production design of the E….

It is clearly slapped together from parts available in the shop, hence the tail pipes (they probably just don’t have a rear bumper element without those). Probably damaged or off-spec parts were used for the exterior, given the rather unprofessional overall appearance of the vehicle. A prototype from a German manufacturer would be heavily camouflaged; Tesla is the only company that does not camouflage its vehicles in testing.

I don’t see Panamera mule, in the hoodline or front quarter panels. The quarters seem odd, in that they don’t crest in-line with the headlights, like Porsches of the past. That might work with the headlights of Mission E. The camo, on front and back, also looks fairly deliberate. Not sure.

I kind of agree with you but that’s probably because all Porsche’s have a similar design and really how much different can their 4 door models look? This to me does look smaller than the Panamera though. Like kind of a lot shorter.

Let’s see if VW make their chargers 400V for everyone and 800V for their vehicles. Given they have to install so many chargers add part of their agreement, I won’t be surprised if they have something like that to give them an advantage. They still satisfy their agreement but gain in the process.
That would negate all the nay sayers about the Super Charger advantage.

I love the all aluminum concept. Any weight reducing actions will help win the race.

Just for Hellery, for a longer distance per charge Utility could we use larger diameter wheels? I did this to my Jetta diesel and got a lot more miles from each fuel tank full. I reduced the already poor acceleration but was not setting out to race anyway. I did get a ticket for an astronomical top speed, even the officer didn’t believe it and threw it away.

Electric cars should be sold with options for lower drag strip numbers but higher long range per charge? The way I see it the torque is there for a second option . . .

“Porsche slapped on a pair of exhaust finishers, but these were not connected to any real exhaust pipes and were there just for décor.”

As an EV advocate I’m not sure whether to find that actually offensive, or merely sad that Porsche is so craven about building EVs that it actually wants people to think the car emits pollution from its rear end!

Whether this is a mule, or a concept car, or a beta, it looks like they are on the right track to me. And benchmarking it against the Model S shows they are serious at building a competitive car.

As far as chargers go, VW/Audi just settled a lawsuit where they agreed to build a whole bunch of chargers across the US. Hopefully they form them into a cohesive network and they will have a network that matches where the supercharger network was when Tesla hit volume Model S production numbers (or better.)

If it works out like that, it will be a major step forward for EV’s in general.

I saw a white Porsche Mission E driving down the I-5 South, north of San Diego. The back looked exactly like the concept – except for the fake exhausts. The front was the same as the spy photos in this article. It looks like they are testing in Southern California.